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Are video games a menace to your child's welfare?

By Adriana Velez, Digital First Media

Posted:
09/20/2013 03:58:53 AM MDT

Updated:
09/20/2013 04:08:40 AM MDT

Like many other aspects of parenting, the transition from simple preschool-level computer games to more serious, big-kid gaming seems to happen in a flash. Suddenly your kid is asking for games you've never heard of, and they're flinging around terms like MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) and PWNED. What's going on -- and how do you know which games are appropriate for what age ranges?

Like movies, video games have a rating system created by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. There are seven different ratings, with age appropriateness defined broadly: Everyone 10+ is for players age 10 and older, for example. Teen is age 13 and up, and Mature is 17 and up. For each rating, there is some general explanation of the content warranting that rating. For example, E for Everyone "May contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes."

Besides rating games, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board also lists interactive elements like “Shares info, shares location, and users interact.” Boxed video games have rating summaries that elaborate on the content that factored into the game's rating. And to make things easy, Entertainment Software Ratings Board has a searchable database for all of this rating information. As an example, let's take a look at the rating information for the game "Portal 2."

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The Entertainment Software Ratings Board ratings are a pretty good start, but you may want to dig deeper. A resource that goes well beyond basic ratings is Common Sense Media. Along with television shows, movies and other forms of entertainment, Common Sense Media evaluates video games for age appropriateness to a more specific level than the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. They assign a specific age, but also give a range. Maybe a game is ideal for 7-year-olds, but will appeal to kids age 7 to 10.

(Ryan McVay/Thinkstock)

Common Sense Media specifies which kinds of potentially objectionable content is in the game -- the normal violence, sex and language, but also things like consumerism, drinking, drugs and smoking. And it rates other content important to parents, like whether there are positive role models in the game, and how easy it is to play.

We're so used to being vigilant against negative influences in video games that it's easy to forget that games can also have -- surprise -- positive attributes as well. Common Sense Media lists "What kids will learn from the game," -- a qualitative summary that comes with a list of academic subjects and skills kids may employ while playing the game. And to nudge you to engage your child into a conversation about the game, they provide a few discussion prompts. Plus, parents can contribute their own ratings and comments for a little informal crowd-sourced rating. Here is Common Sense Media's rating for “Portal 2.” As you can see, there's a lot more information than the Entertainment Software Ratings Board ratings, and it speaks more specifically to parents' concerns.

For parents who are particularly concerned about violence in video games, it helps to see the violence in the context of gaming culture. The violence does seem different than in other kinds of media because it's your child's actions engaging in the violence you see on the screen. But as Rosalind Wiseman, author of the new book “Masterminds and Wingmen” says, kids know parents are “inconsistent in our perceptions of what constitutes violence in video games.” We may be OK with a plumber stomping creatures out of existence in “Super Mario Brothers” and not mind that we cause mass destruction in “Sim City” due to the careless misuse of resources. But shooting games feel more toxic.

The debate rages on over whether video games actually cause aggression in kids. But there are different kinds of violence. And we have to acknowledge the violence kids see us accept in other media if we want to effectively moderate the games we allow in our homes.

“Some video games can normalize humiliation, degradation and senseless violence -- as do a lot of things in our culture that we fully or tacitly accept,” Wiseman says. “Some of our most popular and treasured music, movies, sports, political figures, and television and radio shows do it. If we don't admit that, we have no credibility when we talk to our kids about the violent games they're playing.”

And we do need to talk with our kids about that violence, not just police which games enter our homes. After pouring over the ratings, what parents must do next is sit and play that game with our kids (or at least watch). Then we start the conversation.

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